The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group PC (President's Comments) George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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AGM and Elections
November is the month when you have the opportunity to elect the members who will represent your interests. This year we have ten candidates standing for the eight committee positions. I encourage all members to vote for the candidates of your choice. This can be done at the meeting, and remember to bring your membership card in order to receive a ballot paper, or you can lodge a postal vote.
This year three committee members are standing down and I thank them on your behalf for the work they have
performed to improve services for this group. They are:
Noel Peters who is the Vice President and has had the Special Interest Group (SIG) Coordinator
portfolio for two years, has been a tireless worker. With 41 SIGs this was a huge workload to provide
support and equipment for these diverse groups in a just and equitable manner and one Noel performed
admirably. He is responsible for many innovations such as giving all city based SIGs and GIGs (General
Interest Groups) their own hard disk kept in a locked cabinet.
Roswitha Aigner whose portfolios included Library and Volunteers. Roswitha put in a lot of effort
updating the volunteer list. This is no mean task as we have about 275 volunteers working in many areas.
She was responsible for obtaining new library books and acquiring the large glass-fronted bookshelves
that are on view in the office. Roswitha helped our librarian with organising the library and assisted
in organising several events such as the Volunteers Christmas party.
Margaret Brown's portfolio was PC Update. In addition to liaising with the producer, she
wrote articles for the Seniors magazine and helped to raise awareness of the Melbourne PC User Group to
a wider audience.
Monthly Meeting Update
Due to the number of members who attended the monthly meetings in Clayton, the committee received a very
clear message that many members find the SE suburb location more convenient than Parkville and there will
be meetings in the SE as well as close to the city. Although the facilities at the Alexander Theatre are
excellent, it can hold only 510 members and this is not adequate. Another site, probably in Burwood will
be the SE suburbs venue. We intend to alternately hold two meetings there and one in Parkville. I cannot
give details until the bookings are finalised which will be some weeks after this publication date.
As this magazine is going to the printer we have been informed that the Pharmacy College in Parkville will
not be accepting any more bookings next year so a new venue will have to be found close to the city. Details
should be available in the next magazine.
Internet Co-location
We have been considering moving the Internet equipment to some other secure data centre as a part of the
proposed move out of South Melbourne in the future. The list of possible organisations was narrowed down
to two and we have decided to co-locate with Comindico. The move will be phased in over several months and
we do not expect any interruption of any services during the move as we have redundancy built in. The
initial visible change will be a new phone number that will enable local call access from the entire
Mornington Peninsula. Full details will be made available.
Monthly Meeting
This Monthly Meeting will be at the Pharmacy College in Parkville Wednesday 6 November, 2002, staring at
6.00 pm. See page 63 for the detailed map. It will be our last meeting at this venue due to a change of
policy by the college.
Symantec have long supported Melb PC and kept us abreast with developments. David Hall will tell us about
Symantec's newest programs.
Hitachi's DVD camcorder is not much bigger than a couple of cigarette packets. The CDs will fit comfortably
in your shirt pocket but hold two hours of video. Shibily Moidy will show you the magic you can achieve by
combining this incredible piece of technology and your computer.
Democracy At Work - The Annual General Meeting
This is your chance to choose your Melb PC committee representatives. Voting will be held during the
evening (you must bring your membership card), but it will not disrupt the evening's presentations.
Have you been to a monthly meeting yet? You don't know what you're missing. There's information and fun,
entertainment and many prizes plus opportunities to socialise and meet new friends.
The meeting will also have our Random Access session (your chance to ask the experts) Plus lots of Prizes!
Bring your membership card so that you will be eligible for raffle prizes. It's a great night. Don't
miss it!
Reprinted from the November 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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